This application relates devices for tree limb removal in residential, commercial, municipal, utility, and line clearance applications.
Conventionally, in order to remove limbs on a tree, a crew member with a chainsaw would need to be lifted in a bucket on a boom to an appropriate location in a tree or climb the tree using a harness and ropes. At this location and height, various tens of feet above the ground, the crew member operates the chainsaw to remove segments of the tree, one at a time, so that the segments can fall to the ground. These separated tree branches and parts, once they have fallen to the ground or are lowered using ropes, are then typically collected and placed in a chipper. For larger portions of the tree such as a trunk, a crew member may be able to operate the chainsaw at ground level.
These traditional ways of removing a tree are very labor and time intensive. A traditional crew can require many members and these crew members need to be well coordinated so that the bucket operator or climber is properly positioned and so that the crew members on the ground stay out of the drop zone of the branches during cutting by the crew member climbing or in the bucket. Moreover, these traditional methods required that at least one crew member be placed at a high elevation in order reach appropriate cut points and then operate cutting machinery at this height.